Other Links

Biologicals Hit the Marketplace

David Chittick spends a lot of time on the golf course these days, working
hardnot on his swing, but searching for Japanese beetle grubs nestled
under the grass.

Chittick, president of Fairfax Biological Laboratories, Inc., based in
Clinton Corners, New York, looks for heavy infestationsabout 25 to 30
grubs per square footand often finds them on golf courses. He collects
the grubs from the soil and brings them back to his laboratory, using them to
mass-produce a bacterium that causes milky spore disease in the beetle pests.

The bacterium, Bacillus papillae, naturally attacks Japanese beetles.
It infects the beetles' blood and eventually weakens and kills them.

Fairfax Biologicals has been producing these natural bacteriawhich it
markets under the name Doomsince 1945. U.S. Department of Agriculture
scientist Samuel R. Dutky pioneered methods to culture the organism after
researchers discovered it in New Jersey in the 1930's.

Chittick says the milky spore product is one of the oldest biological
control products around. His company has produced between 15,000 and 55,000
pounds of the milky spore powder each year.

This is just one of many examples of private companies picking up on USDA
research and producing natural products that farmers, gardeners, and others can
use on pests.

Biological control is a key part of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which
also uses crop rotation, resistant cultivars, pheromones, and other
biologically based strategies to keep crop pests in check.

"The idea is to hold chemical pesticide use to a minimum," says
Ray Carruthers, national program leader for biological control for USDA's
Agricultural Research Service. "ARS and USDA have a long history of
working on IPM solutions to pest problems."

Indeed, more than a century ago, the pioneering USDA entomologist C.V. Riley
understood the importance of biological control. In his 1881-82 report, Riley
wrote that "the work of enemies and parasites has been indicated
sufficiently at least to show their importance and the danger of interfering
with their operations by means of half remedies."

Riley was referring specifically to natural enemies of scale insects that
were attacking oranges in the late 1800's. But his word's apply to virtually
all natural enemies of crop pests.

Biologicals Are Good Business

Private companies have recognized the commercial payoffs. In recent years,
more biological control products have been developed, Carruthers notes, as
environmental concerns have forced companies to take a closer look at
nematodes, bacteria, fungi, pheromones, parasitic wasps, and other natural
enemies for controlling crop pests.

"We've turned the corner," says Stefan Jaronski, senior scientist
at Mycotech Corp., of Butte, Montana. "There does seem to be more
willingness to use biocontrols."

In mid-1995, ARS and Mycotech signed a Cooperative Research and Development
Agreement (CRADA) to develop a fermentation method for mass-producing a natural
fungus to control the sweet potato whitefly. The CRADA was the 500th that ARS
has entered into with private industry since the Federal Technology Transfer
Act of 1986 took effect.

"We estimate that about 40 percent of our CRADA's involve IPM or
biological control," says Richard M. Parry, Jr., who heads the ARS Office
of Technology Transfer. "Often it is small, rural companies that are
working with us to develop new IPM products for the marketplace."

Mycotech is a good example of such a small company. It employs about 20
people, including five working on biopesticides.

"Because of the size of our company, we'd never be able to do this
without cooperation with ARS," Jaronski says.

In the CRADA signed in July, Mycotech will work with ARS scientist Mark A.
Jackson at Peoria, Illinois, to test a strain of Paecilomyces
fumosoroseusa fungal biocontrol agent.

Jackson developed a unique liquid culture fermentation process that Mycotech
will field-test and help fine-tune for use on a commercial scale.

Mycotech has been working on another biocontrol project with ARS scientists
in the Biological Pest Control Research Unit at Weslaco, Texas, where
Carruthers worked before moving to the agency's National Program Staff in
Beltsville, Maryland. It involves the fungus Beauveria bassiana, which
also infects sweet potato whiteflies.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently approved the product for
commercial use against the whitefly, which attacks more than 600 plants
worldwide and has caused losses of more than $250 million a year in Texas,
Florida, and California alone. According to Jaronski, the B. bassiana
product registered by ERA is also effective against other pests, including
aphids, mealy bugs, pear psylla, thrips, and leafhoppers.

Jaronski says one reason companies are taking a closer look at biological
control products is the cost of developing them.

Industry estimates that it costs $1-2 million to develop a new biological
product, compared to $40-70 million for a new agrichemical, he says. A big
factor in that expense is toxicological tests that lake from 5 to 7 years for a
new agrichemical, but as little as 3 months for a biological.

Marshaling Nematodes, Yeasts, and Bacteria, Too

Another biological product making its way to the marketplace is a nematode
called Steinernema riobravis, a natural enemy of pink bollworms, corn
earworms. and fall armyworms, among others.

An ARS research team led by Jimmy R. Raulston at Weslaco discovered the
nematode, which carries a bacteria that infects the pest larva or pupa and
kills the insect within 24 to 48 hours.

"The nematode acts like a missile," says Ramon Georgis, vice
president for research and development at Biosys, Inc. The company, based at
Columbia, Maryland, worked cooperatively with ARS to develop the nematode and
has a license to make a commercial product that will be part of the company's
Vector line, Georgis says.

Biosys started selling the nematode-based products commercially in 1994-95,
and Georgis says sales for golf courses and citrus groves have been
"excellent so far."

This winter, another new biological control agent is expected to make an
impact in postharvest citrus production. Ecogen, Inc., based in Langhorne,
Pennsylvania, worked with ARS in developing ASPIRE, a biofungicide that was
approved by EPA in early 1995.

ASPIRE is made from the yeast Candida oliophila, discovered by ARS
scientists Charles L. Wilson and Michael E. Wisniewski, both at the Appalachian
Fruit Research Laboratory in Kearneysville, West Virginia, and by Edo Chalutz
and Samir Drobi of the Volcani Institute in Israel. The yeast, isolated from
tomato peel, is a natural enemy of fungi that cause citrus and other fruits to
rot during storage.

Timothy B. Johnson, director of product development for Ecogen, says ASPIRE
works by outcompeting the disease-causing organisms for space and nutrients at
wound sites on the fruit.

In packinghouse tests, ASPIRE has been effective for normal storage periods.
He expects the product to be launched commercially during the 1995-96 winter
season.

"By January 1996, we should have hundreds of thousands of tons of fruit
treated with ASPIRE," Johnson says.

Within 2 to 3 years, ASPIRE could account for 25 to 35 percent of
postharvest citrus treatment. "This could be very significantan
excellent example of ARS technology reaching commercial use," he says.

Yet another postharvest controlalso for citruscalled Bio-Save
11, has been approved by EPA.

"We're continuing to work with these companies and others on
environmentally friendly pest control," says Parry. "Every success
helps create more interestthere's a multiplier effect at work. So we
expect to see more products hit the marketplace in the coming
months."By Sean Adams, ARS.

"Biologicals Hit the Marketplace " was published in the
January 1996
issue of Agricultural Research magazine.